


What's in a Name?

by elsalapizza (lamerezouille)



Series: SPN Fluff Bingo [23]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dancer Dean Winchester, Established Polyamorous Relationship, F/F, F/M, Journalist Castiel, M/M, Meet-Cute, Misunderstandings, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-25 01:18:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17111720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/elsalapizza
Summary: Dean is a ballroom dancer who can't find a date. His brother is a ballroom dancer in a happy polyamorous relationship. Castiel is a journalist writing about a ballroom dancing Christmas competition. Things get complicated.





	What's in a Name?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #spnadventcalendar2018 on tumblr. Day 22 prompt: "Rocking around the Christmas tree"  
> Square #15 fill on my SPN fluff bingo card "poly fic"

Dean knew very well that most people didn’t consider competitive ballroom dancing to be a very manly sport. Hell, most people didn’t even consider it to be a sport at all. Dean had made his peace with it a long time ago, and frankly he didn’t care too much what people thought anyway.

Well he did care a little bit. But only in the way it affected his dating life. Because believe it or not, but most women he would be interested in thought he was gay, and most men he would be interested in thought he was dating his dancing partner. As neither of those statement was true, it made Dean’s little bisexual heart pretty lonely.

What was the most unfair of all though, was that Sam, who’d been ballroom dancing almost as long as Dean, did not have this problem at all. Actually dating your dancing partner did that to someone. And that option wasn’t even available to Dean, because Sam had the audacity to _also_ be dating Dean’s partner. Dean was well aware there wasn’t anything dubious about it; they’d explained their polyamorous thing to him when they’d started it, and what the three of them had honestly seemed awesome, but still. It was very unfair that Dean had to be alone and his brother dated two awesome chicks. (Well, one awesome chick and Ruby.)

So Dean resolved to focus all of his attention on dancing. And more precisely, on dancing for the _Rocking Around the Christmas Tree_ holidays competition that took place every year in December.

As much as ballroom dancing was the Winchester family business, the RACT—as it was easier to call it—had been their nemesis. Dean and Sam had both failed in the semis numerous times, and their parents, who’d been ballroom dancing state champions in their time, had also never managed to bag that one. It was during a RACT final that Grandpa Campbell had broken his toe back in the sixties, barring him from dancing for several months afterwards.

Needless to say, the stakes were high. Dean insisted on doubling the number of training sessions in preparation for the RACT, and he could feel Jo hating him for it a little bit. But Dean wanted to win, and he didn’t care that Sam and Ruby weren’t as invested in the competition, and that he encroached on the fun times Jo could have with them. They had a chance to win, and even though it didn’t mean as much to Jo as it did Dean, they had to try.

But the point was: Dean was good, he really was, and he and Jo had progressed a lot during this last year. Dean sincerely thought that if they didn’t win the RACT this year, they never would. Sam was good too, but Dean and Jo had always ranked a bit better than Sam and Ruby, so he didn’t really worry about _this_ competition. Dean even sometimes thought of himself as the Serena to Sam’s Venus, but the analogy only worked so far: one, Dean was good at dancing but not as good as Serena was at tennis, and two, the public for ballroom dancing competitions was rather confidential, so nobody actually knew who they were, making it a rather moot point.

Winning this thing was right now the most—the only—important thing in Dean’s life, but nobody but the true ballroom dancing aficionados actually cared at all.

Which was why it was such a fucking surprise to find a bona fide journalist there one day before the beginning of the RACT. Not just a student working for his college newspaper or an old lady who would send her impression of the competition to her local rag to be published. No, this guy had the credentials for a national newspaper, and seemed to be interested specifically in the Winchester brothers’ performances.

He was a real journalist, and a good looking one too. Dark hair and clear eyes, and Dean was struck. It might not be true, but in this one instant, Dean felt like he had never seen a man so pretty before.

“Hello, Mr. Winchester. Would you have the time to answer a few questions?” the man asked, with a deep gruff voice Dean felt like drowning in.

Dean was so stunned to have someone so beautiful ask him for an interview, that he gaped for a good thirty seconds before he remembered to actually answer the question.

“Yeah, sure. Why not. I can answer a few questions,” he managed to say sufficiently intelligibly that the journalist nodded and got out notebook and pen.

“How long have and your brother been performing in ballroom dancing competitions?” The man asked pretty dryly.

All right, so this was very obviously an assignment he had not asked for. But what was Dean thinking? No journo worth their while would ask to cover a Christmas-themed ballroom dancing competition in the middle of Kansas.

“Um, we’ve been dancing ever since we were kids, and started competing right when we reached the legal entering age,” said Dean. “I’ve been dancing with Jo from the beginning, and my brother has been dancing with Ruby for about five years now.”

“How many times have you failed to win the _Rocking Around the Christmas Tree_ competition?”

“Wow. Thanks for that. What did _you_ lose to have to come cover this competition?” Dean generally tried not to be rude, but his stance was that if the other person was rude first, it was completely justified.

The journalist seemed a bit taken aback by Dean’s intensity, then after a pause when he obviously realized what he’d just sounded like, began again, “I apologize. I am used to interviewing hostile politicians with whom you have to get to the point fast or risk never getting answers. This kind of… _interest piece_ is a first for me.”

The guy looked genuinely sorry, so Dean decided to give him a break. “All right. Let’s do it over. I am a bit disappointed you’re not a big wig sportscaster, but I can work with an _interest piece_ , I guess.”

“So, er…I know you have a history with this particular competition. Would you like to talk a bit about it?”

That was way better. Dean smiled his most charming smile while answering, and hoped it wasn’t too obvious how much he wanted this guy to take him out and call him sweet names, then make sweet love to him.

They talked for a while, and it went well, better than that really. By the time Dean needed to get back to his training, it didn’t even feel like an interview anymore.

Dean had learnt that the journalist’s name was Castiel (but he’d already decided in his head that he would be calling him Cas) and that he was coming from out east for a new column in his newspaper that was supposed to draw better pictures of “forgotten America”. It sounded a little bit like crap, but Cas was just so genuine about it and about doing justice to people that weren’t always given a voice, that Dean couldn’t help but being charmed.

They’d agreed to continue the conversation around a cup of coffee after Dean was finished with rehearsal, and Cas even stayed to watch while Dean and Jo started practicing their dance routine. Dean could feel his gaze on them the whole time. At one point Cas even got a camera out. Dean couldn’t help but feel more self-conscious about his sweat and the general unkempt air he knew he had during training.

Jo, if her smug look was anything to go by, was obviously well aware of what was going on. Dean was tempted to make her pay for it, but so close to the RACT, he couldn’t afford to antagonize her (even if she didn’t mind antagonizing _him_ ).

After they’d done their routine enough times that Dean was satisfied ( _for now_ ), he went directly under the shower, scrubbing himself thoroughly and maybe taking a little more time than necessary on arranging his hair.

When he got back in the main room, Cas was interviewing Jo. And, all right, that was fair. His article wasn’t supposed to be entirely on _Dean_ , it was normal that he would interview Jo too. They were a team, and even if Dean was a bit of a control freak, they participated equally in any of their successes or losses.

Dean noticed pretty smugly though that Cas didn’t look at Jo the in the same captivated way that he had looked at Dean. Dean waited for Cas to be finished, far enough that he couldn’t eavesdrop on them, but still was deadly curious about what Jo was telling him and whether it involved Dean.

Dean felt pretty excited and confident with his not-a-date-but-still-kind-of-a-date with Cas, but when Cas came towards him once he had finished with Jo, he had traded his nice smile for a thoughtful frown.

“Listen, I am not sure coffee was such a good idea. I have to focus on my article, and it would be detrimental to it if I got too close to its subjects,” Cas blurted out in one breath before getting out, not even leaving Dean the time to answer.

Dean felt like the floor had opened up beneath his feet. He’d been so sure there was a spark there between him and Cas, and yet… What the hell had happened between their earlier conversation and now for Cas to have so completely changed his mind about Dean?

He asked Jo if she had said anything unsavory about him, but she swore she had not uttered his name once during her conversation with Cas.

Dean spent most of the afternoon, and the evening, and the night thinking about Cas and what could have gone wrong. When he hadn’t found an answer the next day—and as he was fucking tired from tossing and turning all night—he decided to let it go. This wasn’t the first time one of his crushes had gone to shit. He was used to disappointment in the matter of the heart, and why should this one be any different? He had a competition to focus on, and most importantly to win.

Cas was just some guy who would leave for his fancy east-coast job sooner rather than later, and even if the coffee-date had happened, it certainly would have lead nowhere anyway.

Dean unilaterally decided to stop thinking about Cas. There was some dancing to do.

It was, unfortunately, a way easier thing said than done. Because Cas was a diligent journalist, and of course he wouldn’t miss one minute of the competition. Dean could see him in the audience every time he glanced towards them, and it definitely didn’t help his stress levels.

They did manage to win their quarter final though, and when it was announced that the semis would be against Sam and Ruby, Dean knew that if he didn’t clear the air with Cas, he would never be able to concentrate enough to beat his brother.

(He may well pretend to be the Serena to Sam’s Venus, but he was always more stressed about competing directly against Sam because there was a part of him that wanted his little brother to win too.)

So before he could discuss strategy with Jo, for whom being against Sam and Ruby was even worse given her relationship with them, he turned around and started to make his way towards the spot he’d spied Cas last.

But before he could go very far, Cas was in front of him with a look on his face very different from the cultivated indifference he’d seen for the last few days.

“Dean,” Cas said before Dean could say anything. In Cas’s mouth, Dean’s name sounded like a revelation and Dean realized that it was actually the first time Cas had spoken his name. Dean expected Cas to go on, say what he had to say, but all he did was repeat himself. “Dean,” he said once more, with even more awe in his voice.

There was definitely something beyond Dean’s understanding going on here.

“Uh, yeah, that’s my name. What’s up with you, Cas?”

“I…have a confession to make,” Cas said, his eyes down. “I might have made a terrible mistake.”

“I don’t understand—” Dean started before Cas cut him off.

“I thought you were Sam.”

“What? I don’t understand…” Dean trailed of. This didn’t make sense. How could Cas think he was Sam? Wasn’t he supposed to be writing an article on them? How could he not know their identity?

“I—ah. I am bad with names and I knew you were one of the Winchester brothers, but I didn’t know which. But when I talked with Jo and she kept gushing about Sam, I’d naturally concluded that being your partner, it would be you she was talking about. She was also hinting at being in a relationship with Sam, and because I knew your brother was dating his partner, there was no doubt in my mind that you were with Jo and…well. I felt a bit disappointed and even angry that you would flirt with me so blatantly if you were in a relationship... And so far in the competition, they only used your family names each time, and it is only now that you’ll be competing against each other that they said your first names and that I realized how dire my mistake has been…”

This was a lot to take in, and Dean wasn’t sure the few seconds it took Cas to word-vomit it all would be enough. When he thought about it though, it was true that Cas had only called him Mr. Winchester at the beginning of their interview, and Dean hadn’t actually taken the time to fucking introduce himself. And Jo seemingly had been telling the truth when she said she hadn’t spoken a word about Dean to Cas, which had actually created the problem in the first place. Screw his brother and his perfect relationship that none of the outside world seem to really comprehend.

“I can’t believe it,” Dean finally said. “You thought…you thought I was—”

“I thought you were taken,” Cas interrupted, and Dean definitely could get used to such forwardness. “So, if you’re able to forgive me for withdrawing from that coffee date… I would like it if we could start over.”

Dean didn’t know he could be so relieved to be hearing these words from Cas. He’d tried to pretend he didn’t care, but he hadn’t fooled even himself. Knowing he had a chance with Cas after all was everything.

“You know, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to start over, but I’ll definitely allow it,” Dean said, feeling his smile pulling at his cheeks. “So when are you free for that coffee?”

“Whenever you are,” Cas answered, and Dean could tell this was not just a line.

“All right. I’ll win this thing and I’m all yours.”

And because Cas looked at him like he believed in Dean so much, Dean did too. He would definitely win that thing. Looking at Cas’s smile, he already felt like he had.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr ♥](http://elsalapizza.tumblr.com/post/181331606360/fic-whats-in-a-name)


End file.
